


Gone

by jaspeada0928



Category: Magisterium Series - Holly Black & Cassandra Clare
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2017-06-27
Packaged: 2018-08-13 07:25:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7967737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaspeada0928/pseuds/jaspeada0928
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The bolt of light hit Aaron in the chest. He was gone, empty, just a shell. It was wrong.<br/>That's when Calls world changed, there was no Aaron anymore, no counterweight to his soul. Just emptiness, sadness and guilt. Guilt because he should have been the one to die, he wasn't the good one, he wasn't a hero. Aaron was.<br/>And Call didn't know if he would ever be able to go over his death, he didn't know what was left for him, everything seemed so meaningless.<br/>And he understood how Contesting must have felt, and suddenly being the Enemy of Death made a lot o sense.<br/>As long as it would bring Aaron back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Empty

**Author's Note:**

> This story contains mayor spoilers of The Bronze Key, so if you haven't read it, you are warned. So this is something I wanted to do after Aaron's death

_A bolt of light._

_Being pushed out of the way._

_A searing pain on his cheek._

_The bolt striking_ him _._

_His body crashing down in the grass. Glassy eyes wide-open._

_"No. Aaron, no, no, no!"_

_Tamara sprawled into the grass next to_ him _._

_Realizing she'd pushed him out of the way, that she'd saved his life. But not_ his _._

_Touching his burned cheek and thinking that maybe_ he _was still alive. Hope._

_Tried to stand up but instead reaching toward_ him _with all his senses. But there was nothing there, no life , a shell, no soul, just a shadow._

_"Power." Gasped the murderer. He had stolen Aaron's power, he had_ _killed him._

_He attacked him, trying to kill him, but it didn't work, Alex was a makar too._

_A scream, Havoc bitting him, Alex's magic going out of control, devouring houses and trees and two of the murderer's minions._

_Alex escaped._

_Tamara crying over Aaron's body, Havoc softly touching her shoulder._

_Then he was there, next to his fallen friend, he grabbed his hand. It was cold._

_"Why did you do it?" But she didn't have enough time to answer him._

_"There!"_

_The mages had found them, but they were too late._

_They always were._

_Rufus trying to find a pulse, but there was nothing, no Aaron anymore, just emptiness and sadness. He was gone, no more Aaron, no more friend, no more_ brother.

_And he understood Constantine, it all made so much sense._

_" What happened here? What did you do?"_

_And rage_ _exploded inside of him, rage because he couldn't stop this from happening, rage because they were late._

_Always late._

_"It wasn't me! Alex Strike and his- minions, he killed Aaron. You're letting them get away!"_

_"No!" Alma had discovered who he was, her accusations didn't even bother Call, he didn't care if they discovered who he was, he just wanted them to catch Alex and make him pay. Make him pay for taking_ him  _away._

_Rufus and Tamara defended him, but Alma didn't give up. She kept accusing him and saying things that were mostly true, things he hated about himself, things he regretted doing, some that he didn't even remember doing. He couldn't confront any of that, not with Aaron's body next to him._

_No one contradicted her._

_They tried to get him back to the Magisterium, but he didn't want to leave Aaron, he couldn't._

_He was tired of it all, tired of lying, of hiding. So he admitted it all, he yelled all the truth, all he had done, and who he was. He just wanted it all to end, he just wanted them to get the criminals. But instead, they treated him like the criminal, they believed he had killed his best friend, his_ brother. _And he was clapped in chains and dragged to a cell. Like a criminal._

_He could´t say goodbye to Aaron for the last time._

_He couldn't even cry for him._

_\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

He had been there in a cell for a week. A cell with three white walls and one entirely clear, he was observed all the time. It was impossible to escape, magic didn't work and he was sure that digging a hole with a spoon wouldn't work either. They gave him tasteless food twice a day, most of the time he didn't even touch it. He didn't feel like eating, he didn't feel like living. And being alone in a cell with nothing to do didn't help him to feel better.

He spent the day hating everyone and himself, replaying the battle and imagining how it could have gone, imagining Aaron alive, and sometimes even imagining himself death. Aaron was the good one, the perfect makar, he could have done so many things with his life, he had so many things left to do. But he was gone, and he was the one who had survived, the evil one, the Enemy of Death, the one hated by everyone, the one who should have never gone to the Magisterium in the first place, maybe like that Aaron would still be alive, maybe Jasper did really deserve his spot more than he did. Maybe he had actually stolen his opportunity, like he had stolen the real Callum Hunt's body fourteen years ago.

Sometimes he dreamed about Aaron, he saw him talking to him, joking around, playing with Havoc, being alive. And he wished those dreams lasted forever, that he did´t have to come to a reality in which his best friend was dead and everyone hated him, in which he had stolen a baby's life and body and had murdered hundreds of people, in which a crazy old mage wanted him to join the dark side and his student tried to kill him, in which he blamed himself for Aaron's death, because in the end, all the bad things that happened were his fault.

And there were also the nightmares, in which Aaron blamed him, in which he saw him dying again and again, in which he woke up in the middle of night, sweating and with tears on his eyes, his leg hurting horribly because of all the movements he had done while sleeping, and there was no one there to tell him everything was going to be okay, to tell him all that nightmare would be over, no friends, no father, no Tamara, no Alistair, no Havoc and no Aaron.

He understood that the mages hated him, even feared him, but he couldn't help but feel angry at them. Angry for taking him away from Aaron, angry for letting Alex escape, angry because he couldn't go to Aaron's funeral, because he couldn't cry for him, because he wouldn't do it while someone was watching him 24/7, he wouldn't show weakness, it would only be for the worst.

What he couldn't understand was why they didn't just kill him or something. Why they didn't just send him to jail or executed him in public, probably there was something like Azkaban in the magic society, why couldn't they just send him there and end it all? At least he would now what would happen to him, at least he would have other prisioners to talk to. Or maybe he didn't even deserve that, maybe what they wanted was for him to go slowly insane between those white walls. 

He wanted to get out and to know what happened with Havoc and Tamara, but what he really wanted was Aaron back. His soul was filled with a feeling of sadness and loss, loss for something he would never be able to get back, because when people died they were gone. Forever.

Or at least that's what the assembly wanted him to believe.

Call didn't want to understand how Constantine had felt, but he was pretty sure that he was feeling something very similar as the Enemy. Constantine lost Jericho and he lost Aaron. The story was repeating once again. Maybe it was better he was in prison, because he didn't want to hurt anyone else, he wasn't sure if he wouldn't go insane, because it was all to much, and he didn't know anything anymore.

Probably everyone he knew regretted ever knowing him, even Tamara and master Rufus. And he couldn't blame them, maybe they would be better with him out of his life. He knew Aaron would have been, and Sarah too.

But stil, he wanted to get out, he wanted to know what was happening outside, and deep inside, he still wanted to survive

_Call wants to live._

So when a certain woman came to his cell and explained him he was his mother, or at least Constantine's, he was glad, he didn't like it but deep inside he was glad because he didn't want to die, he didn't want to go slowly insane between those white walls.

Call was impressed, he admired how much Anastasia Tarquin loved her sons and all she had done to help them, how she had lived all her life with only one purpose, to see her son again. And Call was very surprised that anyone would do all that for him, he felt that he didn't deserve all the love the woman felt for him.

"This time I am going to save you, my son. This time I am going to set you free."

And with those words Call knew his life would change drastically. But he didn't reject the offer. Because after all,  _Call wants to live._

 


	2. A New Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Call is "rescued".

“This is why I´m going to save you, my son. This time I’m going to set you free.”

As soon as she said those words, all the lights turned off and all the underground edification was plunged into total darkness.  
Call couldn’t see anything at all, and for a second he feared he had gone blind. Then, someone, or something, grabbed his hand and started pulling him and running. His leg hurt horribly, but the hand grabbing his own was strong and he didn’t have any other option than to keep running.

His eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness and he could see the walls. They were running through countless halls, turning abruptly to the left or to the right until he couldn't tell how long they had been running. It seemed an eternity. Then, he heard screams and people yelling, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed through the halls.

They were looking for him.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, they arrived to a big room, that looked like some kind of reception. Call could see the silhouette of a chandelier hanging from the high ceiling and a rectangular figure that looked like a desk. Behind it there were two figures whispering and pointing at them with what seemed fear.  
There was a double door in front of him, some light came into the room thought the space between the door and the floor. He heard footsteps coming towards them. The person that was holding his hand let go of it and stood in front of him; the silhouette of Anastasia extended her hand, pointing at the door and a crack appeared on the expensive wood. Light filtered into the room as the crack extended towards the ceiling.  
The two women behind the desk stored at them wide-eyed.  
A group of six Magisterium mages entered the room just as the crack reached the ceiling and the door fell of its hinges, hitting the ground in front of Anastasia loudly, at the other side of the door frame stood eight masked figures, like the ones who had attacked with Alex when Aaron died. Call found himself wanting to attack them and make them pay, and also to run away. Before he could decide what to do, Constantine’s mother grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the fallen door and to freedom.  
The masked mages broke into the reception and started throwing spells at the assembly mages. Anastasia and Call ran pass the masked mages, who allowed them to cross.  
They were Joseph’s subordinates, and they were helping him creating a distraction so he could escape, that meant he was being rescued by the “dark side”, not that it really mattered, after all, everyone already thought he was evil, and the enemy. The Enemy of Death. They weren’t wrong. He didn’t really care, Call just didn’t believe his situation could get any worse. What worried him was what would happen with his father, Havoc and Tamara. In how much trouble had he gotten they into? Would they be seen as traitors? Would Havoc be _eliminated_?

Call heard an explosion behind him. They kept running into the woods that surrounded the building. He turned around for a second and saw a castle-like edification with figures throwing rocks, fire and things that exploited to each other. He had to turn around again quickly so he wouldn’t trip on something and fall face flat into the ground; that would be just great. His leg hurt so much it had almost gone numb, he wished they would arrive to their destination sooner because he knew he couldn’t run for much longer, and he was too tired to use magic to fly.  
They were running and avoiding trees, Anastasia ran incredibly fast for a woman her age, Call feared his leg would get them both captured, he didn’t want to go back to that cell again.  
His throat was dry and he was breathing heavily, he wished he had eaten those tasteless meals so he would have had more energy.

The woods ended and a road appeared. there was a black Jeep twenty meters at his right.  
“Just a little more”, Anastasia whispered, and Call wasn’t sure if she was seeking to him or to herself. She was also breathing heavily and the magic he had used to break the door must have drained her.

At last they reached the car and the back door flew open, Call went inside as fast as his leg would allow him and Anastasia followed. Wherever they were taking him was probably better than the cell.  
The masked figure in the driver’s seat turned on the vehicle and started driving towards the sunset, even in that situation, Call couldn’t help but think how movie-like the scene was.

The car moved across the countryside in almost complete silence, the only sound was the constant moving of the wheels and Anastasia’s breathing, the masked driver didn’t say a word. The woods outside were so quiet Call wondered if there were animals living in them.   
For a moment, Call allowed himself to relax and look at the beautiful sunset ahead, the air conditioner and the landscape out the window were the very needed change he wanted.  
After a couple minutes they went into the woods again through a rudimentary path among the trees, the path went into another road, the car moved for fifteen more minutes before stopping next to an old school bus parked on the side of the road.

The masked driver got out of the car and Anastasia did the same, she glanced at Call and he went out too. They walked to the bus, his leg didn’t hurt that much anymore, and the door opened; they went in.  
Sitting on the seats were a dozen of cloaked mages, but without masks, all of them were staring at Call, he gulped, the fact that no one had explained anything to him was making him nervous. No one spoke, so he just looked at all the mages, he saw that two of them were only a year or two older than him, and that most were teens or young adults, he wondered what they were doing among the forces of the enemy, that apparently were _his_ forces. Call wondered what they were thinking at seeing that the mighty Contesting madden had been reduced to a permanently injured kid, they were probably not pleased. But he could only wonder because their faces betrayed no emotion, like if they had been trained to do so; the eyes of the younger ones looked at him with something that looked like admiration, it only made Call more nervous.

Everything was happening so fast, it was just insane.

Finally, he glanced at the front seats and there he found master Joseph staring at him from the driver’s seat. Call froze.  
“Master, is good to see that you could finally join us.”

Call had known that he was being taken to Joseph, but still, that hadn’t prepared him to face the man. He scared him. A hand briefly touched his as Anastasia moved to sit int eh first cupe of seats on the right that were empty, she also stared at him. Call had absolutely no idea of what to do.  
What are you supposed to do when you are in a school bus filled with enemies that think of you as their leader? No idea. So he just stood there, waiting for someone to tell him what to do. The doors were still open, would he be able to scape before they caught him? Probably not, not with his leg still hurting him from the previous run. Just when Call had decided he could at least try, the door closed, leaving him trapped inside the bus. Everyone was still staring at him as if he was the most interesting and amazing thing in the world.

He glanced at Joseph who was looking at him with a scary gleam in his eyes, the corners of his lips were sightly raised, as if there was something he found funny. Call had the feeling that the man knew what he had been about to do. Suddenly, he really remembered who Joseph was. It was the person who had killed Jericho, who had caused Contesting to go evil, who had made him start a war, he was why the _real Callum_ had died, the reason why everyone hated him and all of that had caused Aaron’s death. He had started it, it was his fault.

Call clenched his fists, trying to contain his anger, and master Joseph just kept staring at him with that scary gleam in his eyes.  
Call took a deep breath trying to calm himself.  
Joseph’s seat caught fire.  
He simply stood up, still staring at Call and _smiled_. He waved his hand and the fire died.  
Call felt so much rage he forgot about all the other people in the bus, he didn’t even know if his anger for Joseph was only for Aaron or if it was also because of Jericho. It was just pure hatred at the man in front of him, he didn’t even know someone could hold so much hate at another person. It was blinding.

Without meaning to, chaos started circling his right fist, like smoke, and the amount of it grew until the chaos reached his shoulder, circling all his arm. Call didn’t know he could control the element in that way, he didn’t pay attention it at the moment. He started to rise his arm, but a hand in his left shoulder stopped him, he looked back to find Constantine’s mother. Somehow, her presence made him calm down, like if she was something she usually did.

The chaos disappeared, absorbed into him, and he just glared at Joseph before walking to the last seat on the left, as far as he could from the other mages who were looking at him with something that was definitely admiration, not bothering to hide their emotions. Call just ignored them.

The bus started moving and no one spoke. They followed the road in silence and at some point the young mages started whispering and talking softly to each other, Call couldn’t hear what they were saying, he didn’t really care. He didn’t really care about anything anymore, the only people that mattered where either death or somewhere very far away where he couldn’t possibly reach them.

The bus followed the road in an almost straight line, the situation made Call remember the first time he took a bus to the Magisterium. Everyone was talking and avoiding him like if he had some weird disease. ‘At least now I’m the one avoiding people.’ He thought, and he also wondered if it would also be the start of a new life for him. Apparently it always started in a school bus.

Call sighted and stared at his reflection on the window. He was pale and his hair was longer and more disorganized than usual, for a moment he imagined Constantine’s your handsome face and then rejected the idea. He glanced out of the window and only saw trees and trees in all directions.

He looked at his hand and extended the index finger of his right hand and tried something crazy. He knew that chaos was something dangerous, that it could hurt people, that he had to restrain it, to tame it. But, what if the clue to master chaos was just to let it be, to let it be free, to let it devour? Call knew it was crazy, that ideas like that would inly get him killed, but there was no one in the bus he really cared about and, after all, he didn’t really care about anything anymore, and Tamara, Alistair, Havoc, Celia and Jasper (Even if he would never admit it out loud) were very, very far away were he couldn’t hurt them. Not more than he had already have.

He concentrated on the feeling of loneliness, sadness and desperation he had been feeling the last days, and he somehow transmitted it to the chaos. It wasn’t about thinking, about being careful, it was about feeling, it was about being. A small cloud of dark matter appeared and circled his finger slowly, Call stared at it as it moved in something like a dance, for the first time he wasn’t scared, he didn’t fear it would devore him or overcome him. He wasn’t ordering it to do anything, but it was doing what he wanted it to do, the chaos was listening to him, not obeying but helping. It was weird and all, but Call thought he had just found the way to truly control chaos, maybe the quincunx was wrong, chaos didn’t want to devour, not really, it just didn’t want to be restrained.

The chaos circled his finger for some seconds more and then Call asked it to go away and it disappeared, it was as if the element was alive, and he wondered if that was how elementals felt about their own elements. Call shocked his head, better not to think about it.

He looked at the rows of seats in front of him and instantly the mages turned around and kept talking as if they hadn’t been paying attention to Call at all, Anastasia was talking with Joseph, who was driving. All the mages had turned around minus two, who were still staring at him, they looked his age. The two teens were two rows away from him, they both had blond hair and each had a blue eye and a brown one, the girl had a blue eye on the right and the boy on the left, they looked like twins. Looking at them, Call had a flashback and he saw Tamara’s and Aaron’s faces staring at him, something wet slid down his cheek. He touched it and noticed it was a tear. A single tear for one lost person. He glanced again at the twins, they were looking at him with concern, they weren’t looking at him with admiration, just in the way you would look at someone if they were crying. Call looked down at the window again, he didn’t need their pity, or to get attached to anyone, he would make them believe he was with them and then find a way to contact his father or escape by his own. The plan was very similar to the one he had done when he started his life at the Magisterium. He hoped he wouldn’t get attached to anyone or start liking the dark side.

Looking out at the window, Call fell asleep, he was really tired. The twins looked at him with concern, noticing the tears that were coming out of his closed eyes as he whispered “Aaron…” again and again like in a nightmare. They didn’t dare to come nearer to him, no one did.

The bus kept driving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you think about it and please give me ideas if you have!


	3. Not Coming Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper and Tamara attend to Aaron' funeral, and Call isn't there when the makar's face disappears below the dirt.

News travelled fast.

Only half a day had passed since Call had escaped and every mage and student in the Magisterium and the council knew.

After the masters discovered who Call actually was and he was imprisoned, not even six hours passed by before the whole school knew.

There were plenty of rumors and very different reactions; the students of the bronze year (excluding Jasper and Tamara) didn't know how to feel or what to think. They felt betrayed, tricked, scared of how close to the enemy they had been, confessed and sad for the boy who they thought they knew but was just a liar, a traitor and a spy. They felt angry, they felt like fools.

Of course, they didn0t know the whole story. The mages hadn't bothered to figure it out and the students were too blinded by the supposed betrayal to question the story.

To everyone's surprise, Jasper was the only one who didn't seem angry, like they expected him to be, he just looks very, very sad, almost depressed, like if he had lost something or  _someone_.

The whole bronze year and magic society had lost a friend and a makers. Some knew him better than others, but everyone moured Aaron's death. But that didn't stop them from talking about the most important topic: Callum Hunt was the Enemy of the Death. While the other students glanced angrily at the three empty seats at the bronze table, because they had deduced that Tamara and Aaron knew the truth all along and that was why the girl was absent, Jasper spent the meals in silence and staring at the empty chairs.

He hadn't realized how important the three apprentices were to him. Tamara, the girl who he had tried to impress had become one of his most close friends; Aaron, who was always kind to everyone had become not only a friend but someone that Jasper admired; and Call, his rival, was actually the person that Jasper saw as his best friend, if he had one, the boy pushed him to improve all the time, and Jasper realized how much he missed those pointless fights with him. He didn't only missed them, he was worried for them, he was very affected for Aaron's death and he was worried out of his mind for Call. Would they execute him? Torture him? He knew that the boy didn't remember his past life and that was just that: a boy. He was a troublesome and sarcastic teen, but he was a really good person who worried for his loved ones. He didn't deserve to be punished for something he didn't even remember doing.

Those were the thought going through Jasper's head as he ate the colorful mushrooms and people glanced at him, wondered what had happened to the Di Winter Boy.

For the other bronze years, it was obvious that he knew something they didn't, but they concluded that he didn't know anything about Call due to how much they fought and didn't ask anything.

The asiatic boy didn't even pay attention to Celia anymore and spent all of his free time alone at his room or at the library, trying to search for all the information about the Enemy he could get, it was the only way he knew to help his friends. He knew that Call hadn't actually killed Aaron, as everyone said, and he wasn't going to let the grey-eyed boy go to jail for something he didn't do, even if they were rivals and discussed a lot. It was funny how a year ago he would have tried everything to get Callum in trouble and then, he was trying to help him get out of it.

Also, staying at the library and at his room helped him avoid the questioning glances of the other students. Probably his situation was wasn't as bad as Call's or Tamara's, but being the only member of the group at Magisterium when everyone was searching for culprits wasn't fun either.

\------------->>><<<\-------------

Four days after the incident, the council finished examining Aaron's body and the funeral took place. The grave was on the same spot where the boy had last berthed, decorated with a beautiful grey marmot tombstone with incrusted black stones.

_'Aaron Stewart_

_Great Friend, Hero and_ _Makaris'_

The whole school went to the funeral and some of the most important council members, apparently Makars weren't as important when they died. anastasia Tarkin and her stepson were nowhere to be seen, and Alistair Hunt was there. the man looked depressed, tired, and had bloodshot eyes and dark circles under his eyes. He stood as far as possible form the council members.

Tamara and her parents were there too, all wearing elegant and expensive clothes,  there were black ,of course.

Tamara's father was dead serious while her mother ripped tears from her eyes now and then, trying to maintain her composure, she seemed genuinely affected.

Tamara was a whole different picture. she had her face buried on her hands and was shaking and sobbing. When she heard the murmur of the whispering voices of the students, she looked up and saw at least a hundred o figures dressed in black robes.

At the front of the crowd she saw the bronze years students. Celia was crying silently; raphe was silent and serious, his lips pressed in a thin line; Wenda was bitting her lip, trying to contain her tears; and Jasped was looking at the floor with his arms crossed, trying to hide his shaking hands; although he was walking among the group of students, he looked lonely.

He saw Tamara and his eyes widened, he noticed her bloodshot eyes and the tears sliding down her face, she was bitting her lip to suppress her sobs. The boy walked to where she was standing, leaving the other students behind, and stood next to her and shared a look, somehow comforting each other with that action.

On each other's eyes they saw the truth that they were trying to avoid. The tombstone in front of them confirmed it.

_'He is dead. He is gone. He is never coming back.'_

A sob escaped Tamara and she bit her lip harder, it started to bleed and she looked away to the empty hole that would be Aaron's grave.

The students stood surrounding the hole, in front of them were the masters, they looked tired and stressed.

Everything was in silence.

then, the coffin came into the small clearing, levitating in the air, and it lowered above the hole, so everyone could see Aaron's apparently sleeping face.

But they knew he wasn't sleeping.

No one said a word, a council member rose his hands and the coffin slowly fell to the bottom of the hole, the pile of dirt next to the grave started to fly and cover the hole, and the black wood coffin inside of it. Everyone stared at the scene, unable to take their eyes away from it.

No one spoke in two more minutes until the grave was completely covered. Finally, grass and beautiful yellow flowers grew on the bare dirt and covered the grave.

Tamara's legs gave up and she fell on her knees, sobbing and crying without containing herself. Tears slit silently down Jasper's face, he didn't bothered to see what was happening around them, he kneeled and put a hand on Tamara's shoulder not really knowing what to do.

Tamara hugged him and sobbed on his shoulder. She couldn't believe that Aaron had just been buried in front of her, it just didn't make sense. How could a person with whom she had made so many memories be dead just like that? How could both her best friends be gone?

 _'One of you will fail. One of you will die. and one of you is already dead.'_  

Call was already dead, Aaron had died, and she had failed. She had failed at saving both of them, if she had been faster, better maybe she could have saved them both. But she had failed and they both were gone.

" He's gone, Jasper. He's not coming back. What I am supposed to do now?" She whispered.

 _'Gone. Dead'_ He thought.

"I don't know."

She kept sobbing and the boy helped her stand up. Tamara sniffed and whipped her tears, but the just kept coming out of her eyes.

_A boy who would_ _never smile again, green eyes that would never open again, a best friend who wasn't even allowed to mourn said boy's death._

It was all so wrong.

 

 

At the end, the students returned to the Magisterium and Tamara went too. She walked next to Jasper in silence. She hadn't said goodbye to her parents.

At last, Jasper could get the question that was troubling him through. "What happened?" He asked softly.

She looked at him, and took out a paper from a pocket of her black dress, handed it to him and looked away.

She wasn't ready to talk about it, she wanted to forget that night, but Jasper deserved to know and the least she could do was write it.

_' Alex killed him with the_ _glaunted."_

That was all Jasper needed to know. He felt a sudden burst of anger and the paper of his hand was set in fire and the ashes fell on the ground.

"That traitor." He hissed.

They kept walking to the Magisterium in silence.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will never, ever get over Aaron's death. He is fictional character whose death has marked me the most. It makes me so sad, and that's why I write this. 
> 
> Please review!


	4. Hallways

It was an old house, not what he had been expecting.  
The abandoned building stood in the middle of nowhere, ten minutes away form the road, in some part of the United States, not that he could ask anyone where they were.

The house wasn’t small, but it wasn’t that big as to look as their headquarters. Maybe it was just a stop? Because they had been traveling for a long time, most of it he had been sleeping, but he estimated six hours or so. And he really needed to go to a bathroom.

They door opened and everyone stood up without saying a word, he felt even more out of place. All the mages had backpacks he hadn’t seen before, and the only thing he had were his grey clothes, just as all the others he had wore at his cell.  
The clothed figures got out of the vehicle and suddenly the atmosphere changed when they started to chat among themselves like kids in a school trip.  
He didn’t know what to do, and he didn’t want to ask, so Call just decided to follow the twins that had been turning around to glance at him occasionally.

The windows of the house were blocked, giving it some haunted house vibe. Someone else would think the wood plank were for keeping wild animals away, but he knew they were there to keep curious eyes out of whatever stuff there was inside.

He jumped out of the bus, trying to ignore Joseph’s eyes on his back and followed the group. Anastasia had stayed behind with Constantine’s former master.

He hadn’t seen when the door had been opened, but the mages were already entering through it. Again, he didn’t know what he had been expecting, but he hadn’t thought that the house would look like a normal house inside. With old dusty furniture and a couple sofas and chairs that looked like they belonged in a old lady’s house. Some of the mages sat in the living room and kept chatting like if they were at home; some headed to the kitchen, which looked like a normal kitchen for what Call could see; some other headed upstairs, the steps covered in a dark green carpet in front of the door; and the rest went to the basement, the twins included.

Something told him that he wouldn’t find anything abnormal in the house, so he decided to keep following the two teens.  
At the end of the stairs there was another door, also opened already, but it was made of metal and had some weird carving on it, carving that looked a lot like the ones he had seen around in the Magisterium. It also had medieval looking locks that weren’t supposed to be in a normal basement door. The answers he wanted were there.

Call crossed the door frame and found himself in a cave, which was very unexpected because the cave was big and slopped into a chamber before diving into three hallways. He decided that mages had a thing for caves.  
The chamber had some of those weird rock chairs that had been in the master’s reunion, some tables and desk, a pond with a small waterfall on the right side, a library on the left wall, a sofa, and lizard elementals on the ceiling.  
Most of the mages headed to the right hallway and to the library, where they picked books, some others sat in the sofa and chairs to chat.

He had been expecting a sinister laboratory or a torture chamber, not a common room that didn’t differ much from the on at his room at the Magisterium. He was at a lost.

“Callum Hunt, right?”  
He had been so distracted looking around that he hadn’t noticed that the twins had turned around.  
“Sorry?” He blurted out.  
Panic flashed on the girls eyes and she tensed. “My apologies. Do you prefer to be called Constantine, master?” Her friendly behaviors had disappeared and they were both very serious.

“No!” he almost yelled. Fear flashed on their eyes but their faces didn’t show it. “No, no. I mean, just Call.”   
They seemed to relax and the girl smiled. “I’m Laurent and this is Jack.” Her brother nodded. “Is good to know we actually didn’t misjudge you, I honestly thought you were going to kill us in the spot some seconds ago.” The normalcy in the way in which she spoke was something Call really needed at the moment.

But he didn’t know what to say, he wasn’t very skilled at making friends.

“Are you okay? You were crying on the bus.” She was very direct, he preferred that to secrecy and rumors, but the question stung. What a great way to present yourself as the leader of the dark side, showing weakness and crying.

“Yes, it’s just..” But it wasn’t just, it was so many things that he didn’t know where to star.

“It’s because of the other makar, right? You were close friends.” Jack spoke for the first time, giving Call at least something to explain his nightmares. The word makar didn’t have the same effect as Aaron’s name, not the same familiarity and sense of loss it brought. He was able to push those feeling away.

“He was my best friend.” His voice sounded empty, better that the sorrow it would carry if he allowed the feelings to cloth it.

They didn’t say anything, didn’t react at all. Instead, Laurent grabbed his arm and lead him to the right corridor, away from the stares of the other mages. Jack opened a door, one of dozens that covered the walls of the hallway, and went in. Inside, there were two bunk beds, the one on the right with sheets and things on the night stand, books, a pair of glasses; and the other one completely bare, without sheets and nothing that showed that anyone slept there.

The door was closed by the blond boy, and just like that he was surrounded by a pair of arms. The first consolation he had had since it all had happened, and he needed it so much. Tears slit down his cheeks, and he didn’t push the girl away. She was a stranger, but a kind stranger was the best he could ask for in a place like that, and more than he had expected to get.  
She led go after a while, smiling softly. Call allowed himself to cry silently. Jack sat on the right bed, with the backpack he had been carrying on it, taking clothes and books out, like if he wasn’t crying; he was grateful.

“Thanks” almost left his lips before the girl said “Don’t even say it.”  
She sat next to her brother and he sat on the bare bed.

“I don’t want to sound harsh, but you have no friends here. “Started Jack, “So we are going to help you settle in. I think we are better than some mysterious mage that master Joseph would choose for the work.”  
“Certainly.” His sister agreed. “They only think of revenge.”  
“Call,” he continued “I know it can be hard to get used to be around here, but you have no more options for now. And you may be thinking we are trying to trick you or something, because in your place I would, but we know how it is to be alone and clueless here, especially when you don’t want revenge or war like the other ones. We don’t have anywhere to go to either.”

“And as it seems the rumors are true and you don’t remember who you were” Laurent whispered “I guess you want to escape. We’ll help you if you take you with us.”  
“We don’t want to give our lives for a cause we don't believe in.” Jack finished.

“Wow. That’s a lot of information.”

Laurent turned to her brother. “I told you so!” She said triumphantly.  
“Well, yeah, but he got it.”

“We’ll work together then, but how can I know I can trust you?” He thought it was a very reasonable question.   
“We were brought here because our parents died in the war. He were put in an orphanage and here it’s better than there, but we don’t want to fight.” Jack said.  
“I don’t want to kill.” Laurent whispered, and he felt in her voice or the doubts and fears he had had. She didn’t want to become a monster either.

“So… Where will I be sleeping?” Call asked.

The girl’ face brightened, and he saw he had made the right decision “Oh, I guess master Joseph will tell you. Someone should be here at any moment to-“  
The door opened and one of the older mages stood there. “-And here they are. See you later, Call.”

The mage stared at her until she realized her mistake. “I mean, master Constantine, I’m deeply sorry for my disrespect.”  
Call knew the mage was suspicious, who he played along. Trying to sound commanding and secure of himself, which was a hard task at the moment, he said “I hope it doesn’t happen again.” as coldly as he could.  
He knew he had done it well enough when the mage started speaking “Master Joseph awaits you.” And he walked away, so Call glanced at the twins one last time before following.

————————————-

They walked back to the common room and went into the middle hallway. There were no door, only some torches on the stone walls.   
At the end of the corridor, there was a open door and they entered to another chamber.   
Inside, Master Joseph, Anastasia, and five other mages sat in a circle. There was an empty chair next to the woman. Two of the makes were females and three males. The messenger left the chamber and he sat on the empty chairs with all the stares on him.

“Now that we are all here we can start the meeting.” Joseph announced, Call refrained himself from glaring at him. “At last our leader had been able to join us, after all those years pretending to be a member of our enemy’s forces.” _Pretending_. Joseph looked at Call’s eyes, and sent him a silent massage. _Play along._   
There wasn’t really any other option.

“This certainly will cause chaos at the assembly, coined with Tarquin’s betrayal, but the question is how are we going to get the body and when.” One of the women, pale and with black hair, said.  
 _The body?_ He just hoped they weren’t talking about what he thought they were, because he feared what he may try if he got the opportunity. Because there would be no way back.

“Next Wednesday, I’ll get it myself.” Joseph said. “And I have been working in a way to… accomplish our goal.” He spoke looking at Call.  
 _Goal?_

“Then, there’s no point in this meeting anymore.” One of the men said, he was taped and tall.  
“You may leave if you wish.”   
In twenty seconds the mages had left, the possibly that it was him that unnerved them gave him conflicting thoughts.

Anastasia stood up. “I’ll find you later.” she promised before leaving.  
Call was alone with the culprit of it all, the chaos inside him wanted to get out. _Make him pay_ , it whispered.  
Joseph looked at him with that gleam in his eye.  
“Why did you made me come? Whose body?”  
The man walked to the door and turned around “You can stay in the twin’s room.” was all he say.  
Call was left alone in the room with rage boiling inside of him.

—————————————-

“This is the kitchen, you make your own food; upstairs are the tv room, the video games and a small gym. You can also go outside to exercise.” Jack explained as they showed him around the house.   
The pond was actually a pool, there were books almost about anything in the library, and the left corridor contained Joseph’s laboratory, it was off limits.

The day before, he had gotten some sheets, a cover, three pairs of jeans, ten t-shirts in different colors, three pairs of sneakers, and plenty of socks and underwear. Somehow, Miri had been between the clothes. It was in his pocket then.  
He had his own closed and their room had a bathroom.

“We do the laundry outside. Once a week, we do it on Monday.” Laurent added.  
“And that’s it. All the door are bewitched to stay locked at night, so are the windows.” Jack leaned against a the wall. “Up for a game?” He asked. Call just couldn’t believe there were video games.

“Sure.”

“Oh, one last thing. “The blond boy opened a door and there was a bathroom inside. “Well, this is obviously a bathroom.” Then he whispered. “And that,” he pointed to small window on the front wall, inside the shower, big enough for a human to slit through. “that’s our way to freedom.”


	5. Not Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jasper can't spend another day acting as if nothing was wrong.

The days at the Magisterium passed by like blurry images. Everyday Tamara woke up alone in their room, everyday she took classes alone, and everyday she sat down next to Jasper in the cafeteria, while they tried to ignore the whispers. They didn’t talk to anyone and nobody talked to them. The words ‘traitor’ and ‘liar’ echoed in the halls. What Tamara had told had been taken as a lie, and the respectable past of their families was probably the only thing keeping them in the school.  
On the weekends, they took Havoc out, never alone, for all the things that had happened in the past when one of them went by themselves to the woods; and on Sundays, they went to Aaron’s lonely grave and stood there in silence, each of them in their own thoughts.

“He have to do something. We can’t just keep acting as if nothing had happened.”  
“I know.” The girl, replied back.  
“Then, what are we going to do?” Jasper just couldn’t keep living like that, he was restless all the time, he couldn’t sleep well, and he kept feeling a sinking emptiness each time he glanced at the empty chairs hoping to find someone sitting on them.  
“Nothing, he can’t risk being send to jail too, we need to help him from inside. I- I really miss them too, but it’s the best we can do now.” He could tell she truly thought that, but he didn’t and he just could stay there doing nothing. And he couldn’t stand the other members of his tim glancing at him as if he would attack them at any moment. If they thought him a traitor, he might as well become one. But he knew Tamara would do something to stop him if she knew.  
“You’re right,” he lied “we should stay here, and you could find a way to help them.” The girl nodded, pleased with his answer.

He felt bad for lying.

He walked her to her room and left to the library, some days ago he had found something about being able to track someone with a belonging, and maybe the mages thought Call would be shielded against something as simple as that, but he, he knew that Call didn’t know anything about those spells and much less how to avoid them. Sometimes it was useful that the assembly thought Call to be a powerful evil overlord.

After an hour, he found it, and he was surprised by how easy it sounded. He went to his room with the book, ignoring the suspicious glances of his partners, and prepared the spell.  
Some simple words, earth magic and the comb Call had lend him a couple days before that night were all he needed.

_“Your hair is a mess, Jasper.”_   
_“Oh, and I guess you know oh so much about hair styling.”_   
_Call touched his hair and looked down, Jasper could have sworn he was blushing. The grey eyed boy took out a black comb from the pocket of his jeans and handed it._   
_“But seriously, comb it.”_

He put the comb in the floor, touched it, closed his eyes, and said the words. Then, out of nowhere, there was a force, like air pulling him towards it, to the right.  
He packed his things and put on jeans a t-shirt and a jacket. The comb was placed carefully in an inside pocket of the jacket. Jasper packed some other clothes, and wrote a note in a paper he found on his night stand.  
He slid it under the door to the trio’s room and went to the woods, where so many terrible things had happened. And for a moment he thought about what he was doing and why, and then the only answer that came to him was Call’s sarcastic voice saying _“Because of the power of friendship, Jasper.”_  
He followed the pull, and when his legs were getting tired after hours of walking, he saw a damaged structure with mages walking around it.  
“I’m near.” , he thought. And kept hidden in the woods as he followed the force. Not so long later, Jasper found himself at the other side of the road, walking down a path that he would have ignored if he hadn’t felt that it was there.

————————————————————————————-

Tamara woke up to find a note next to the door.

“You stay and find a way to help, but not me.”

Hours later, the Magisterium was filled with whispers of the recent betrayal. And she was alone. Tamara had broken the note in pieces and thrown it to the river.

_“…One of you will fail…”_

She could almost hear Ravan’s voice laughing.

————————————————————————————

Days were pretty similar in the cave under the house, he talked about dumb stuff with Laurent and Jack and read. They practiced spells and played videogames, but none of them really fancied going outside.  
And he was kind of getting used to that life, thinking about the body mentioned in the meeting, when the door to the cave burst open and a black haired figure dropped to the ground, two mages by it’s side.  
The figure, that was bond with some kind of air spell, glanced up, and smiled when he saw Call.  
It took said boy some seconds to register that Jasper, Jasper freaking DiWinter, was in front of him.  
“What.” Was all he managed to say, and he just hoped there wouldn’t be anymore surprises anytime soon because he had already gotten enough to last him a lifetime.  
“Nice to see you too.” Despite being bonded and in a room full of enemies Jasper looked pleased.  
Call had so many questions but he was at a loss of words.  
The twins glanced back an forth from the two boys.

Then, Joseph walked into the room, coming from his laboratory.  
“How did you find us.” He demanded. “Are the mages that desperate as to send a child?”  
Jasper, Call had to recognize, held the man’s gaze. “Callum is not protected from tracking spells, something very basic you should have covered already.”  
Anger sparkled in Joseph’s eyes for a second, and Call could see mages around him preparing to strike if commanded to do so. How could Jasper be so relaxed.  
The Joseph finally seemed to recognize him. “You were in the tower.” Then, those eyes twinkled with amusement. “So, you are the traitor.”  
 _Traitor?_  
“Release him.” Joseph ordered, and Jasper stood up, free.   
Call stared at him in complete confusion. And Jasper, he just looked at him and _winked_ at him.  
“Laurent he’ll stay in your room.”  
And Joseph and the mages all went back to what they were doing as if it was a normal event.  
 _What?_  
 _Traitor?_  
He heard Laurent say “Follow me.” Jasper walked up to him, _smirking_ , and said “Close your mouth, Call. They might start thinking there’s something wrong with your brain.  
And Call just followed his friends to their room, completely lost.


	6. Fire

The twins opened the door and Jasper went in. As soon as Call was in, he slammed the door shut and ran to the bathroom, and threw up.

He went out then and stared at the twins and Call. “I can’t believe I just did that. I was so scared.” He deadpanned.  
So it had all been an act, good.  
“I thought I was going to end up lost in the woods, and then they found me and dragged me here. I can’t believe the news traveled so fast.”  
“Master Joseph probably has spies directly in the Magisterium” said Jack.  
“Why are you here?” He finally asked. Jasper stared at Call as if he was an idiot. “I couldn’t leave you alone, I didn’t know you had people looking after you” he gestured to Jack and Laurent “But still.. we’re friends.” Call was expecting Tamara, if anyone, to come. But not him.  
“How’s Tamara?”  
“She’s fine, her parents got her out of all the trouble. Havoc is with her, by the way.”   
After having close to no news about his friends, the information felt like a gift.  
“Thanks, Jasper.” Call whispered. The other boy frowned at him and turned to the other two people in the room.  
“So anyways, I’m Jasper. I hope Call didn’t give you much trouble.” The teasing tone in his voice was back, and Call felt embarrassment when his three friends started to talk about him as if he were a child.  
“I’m Laurent, as you already know, and this is Jack.” She and her brother shook Jasper’s hand. “Call had adapted pretty well to live here, he doesn’t cause trouble.” She teased, Call glared at her. “But I was under the impression that you two weren’t… the best of friends.”  
“Things change…” Jasper answered vaguely.  
There was an uncomfortable silence in the room for a few seconds.  
“You’ll share Call’s bunk bed, the mages will bring clothes for you later.” Jack explained, breaking the silence. “We’ll leave you two alone for a while, we’ll be in the common room if you need us.” Call and Jasper nodded, and the two twins exited the room.

“Why isn’t she here?” The question had been bugging Call since the beginning. If she wasn’t in trouble then, why?  
Jasper seemed uncomfortable with the question. “She… didn’t thought coming was the best option. She thought we had to help from inside… She didn’t know I was leaving.”  
“You didn’t tell her?” Call was shocked, he hadn’t even considered the thought of Jasper going to a solo mission, but the last few minutes had proven that he was wrong about Jasper in many ways.  
“She would have stopped me. Being there was horrible, Call. The whispers, the glares, the rumors. I figured that if they thought I was a traitor I might as well become one.”  
Call was speechless. “How- how was his funeral?” He whispered at last.  
Jasper clenched his fist and sat in the twin’s bed, Call sat in his. “All the school was there. There wasn’t a speech, it was pretty quickly. His grave is covered in flowers, and Tamara and I visited it often.”  
“I should have been there.” 

More silence.

“It wasn’t your fault, Call. Aaron would have told you that.”  
After days of blocking the thoughts, and distracting himself with the games and the shallow conversations, Aaron’s name mad something snap again.  
A tear scared his eye and fell slowly.  
“It should have been me.” It wasn’t something he could tell the twins, they hadn’t known Aaron. But Jasper had.  
“It was directed to me, not him. If Tamara hadn’t pushed me away none of this would be happening. I didn’t even get to day goodbye, Jasper! It’s all my fault. Why did I had to be reborn? Why couldn’t I just die back in that mountain? If it weren’t for me me Aaron wouldn’t be death!” He was clenching his eyes shut, a with had lifted from his shoulders the moment he said the words aloud.  
Jasper had been unusually quiet, but Call was too busy trying to calm down to notice. Then, a pillow hit him square in the face, his head snapped up.   
“Don’t even think that again! Don’t think for a moment that Aaron wished he hadn’t meet you… that any of us wish you hadn’t come into our life. This is a mess, so what? With or without you Joseph would still be here, and at least now you can do something to stop whatever he is planning. And it’s not your fault that Alex was a traitor, and I can tell you that Aaron wouldn’t blame you either. So you… we, have to move on and do something about this war. He was my friend too, okay? But whatever is it you want now, justice or revenge, I don’t care, we have to start panning something. Get yourself together, Call.”  
Callum was taken aback by the speech. He took a deep breath, wiped his tears and stood up. “We already have a plan, a way out of here and everything. But first we need to find what Joseph is planning. And it… it has to do with a body.”  
“You… You don’t mean…”  
“Probably.”  
“You should just ask him.”  
“What.”  
“He respects you and can’t do anything to you without betraying his own word.”  
Call shook his head. “This is a really bad plan. It isn’t even a plan.”  
“Got any better ideas, I mean, at least this time he have a plan.”  
Call ran a hand thought his hair.  
“I’ll blame you if we die.”

—————————————————————————————-

“You mean the body we talked about in the meeting?”  
“…Yes.” Somehow they were in Joseph’s laboratory, alive, and having a civilized conversation with the man.   
“I thought t was pretty obvious it was Aaron Stewart’s, who else’s body would we be interested it?” His tone was polite, but there was something else under the facade.  
“So… When are you bringing it and why.”  
They had decided for a straight forward method.  
“It’ll be here tomorrow at noon, so you can start the process.”  
“Process?” Jasper, who had been quiet until then, blurted out. The man eyed him with interest. “We are planning to bring the makar back to life, of course.” That glint was again in his eyes, and Call had a sinking felling. “And who else would be better to do the job than The Enemy of Death himself.”

—————————————————————————————-

She already regretted it.  
Tamara truly had no idea what she had been thinking when she sneaked into master North’s office and grabbed the keys to the elemental’s prison.  
After seeing Jasper’s note she just couldn’t continue doing nothing. Jasper hadn’t been as close as her to Aaron and he had done more than he had even intended to.  
She had to help Call, just, do something. But there was nothing in the books and she had run out of places to search.  
The whispers haunted her more than ever, and not even her sister spoke to her anymore. The disgust in Kimiya’s eyes when she caught her gaze hurt.

And then, she remembered she had another sister. One that knew the truth and didn’t care. But, was it worth it? Was it worth the risks? Ravan could simply choose to betray her and burn her alive or consume her or who knew what.  
Elementals were not to be trusted. But she was running out of options, she needed answers, and only they were willing to provide them.

“Back down here again? But alone I see.” Marcus spoke from his cell not far away from Ravan’s. Her sister’s cage was a sea of fire with no trace of her.  
“I want answers.” Her voice betrayed her nervousness, but it wasn’t as if the elementals couldn’t already feel it.  
“And you know how to get them.”  
Tamara clenched her fist around the key. Was it really worth it? All the chaos they would cause?  
“Swear you won’t free any other elementals.” His promises were void of meaning, but it was better than nothing.  
“I have no interest in them, everyone here must find a way to free themselves.”  
She then turned to her sister again, and there she was, between the flames, with her burning gaze on her.   
“You came back.”  
“I know you have answers Ravan, I’ll free you if you give them to me.”  
A smile formed on her lips.  
“I’m afraid you’ll have to fulfill your end of the deal first.”  
The key suddenly was too weary on her hand. A burden too big.  
She turned to Marcus and raised her hand. Half of the key disappeared in the enchanted air and a click was heard.  
The elemental didn’t move, but she knew it was free.  
“I’ll give you the answers, little girl, now go for your sister.”

She gulped and gave her back to the creature that could kill her at any given moment.  
Her arm rose, and another click was heard.  
Ravan’s sea of fire disappeared and she flowed there, looking too alike the sister Tamara remembered.

“You must get out of here and find where the killer is before heading to where your friend hides.” Her sister started.  
“Beware of the spies. Follow the green masked one.”  
“Fire is wha will save you.”  
“You’ll fail if the killer survives.”

Did that mean she had to kill Alex?   
Marcus walked to the exit, leaving the two girls behind.  
Then, a grin appeared on her Ravan’s face and an inferno surrounded Tamara.  
‘I’ll burn, she’ll kill me’.  
But the flames were nothing more than warm against her skin. Ravan circled her. She stopped on her back and Tamara didn’t dare to move.  
Her hands were suddenly on her back.  
“You feel that?” Her sister whispered against her ear.  
Emotions, feeling that were not hers invaded her. Freedom, warm, wholeness, power, strength. The fire called far bellow from under the rocks. The flames were alive and the cracking was whispers, secrets.  
And there, the hands were gone and she gasped and fell to her knees, overwhelmed.  
Behind her, Ravan laughed. “That is what you can get, what will save you and your friends, what will get you your revenge. You’ve always wanted it, and that’s why our parents kept an eye on you, isn’t it? One way or another you’ll fail, sister. But you can choose death or eternity. I’ll be waiting.”  
The cracking stopped, the flames gone, and so was her sister.  
She could hear the pumping of her hearth, and the shaped of the elementals soon became blurry because of the tears.  
After a while, she stood up on shaky legs. ‘Get out of here, follow the green mask.’

That’s what she repeated to herself like a mantra as she went back to her room, packed her things, and took out Havoc for a long, long walk.

——————————————————————————————-

“It’s noon already.” Call stated.  
The four of them had been waiting in the common room the whole morning.  
“Call, Joseph doesn’t lie, they’ll bring it.” Laurent assured him.  
He didn’t know how to feel, glad he would be able to try to bring Arron back or afraid he would have to. What if her turned him into a mindless zombie? What if he ended up breaking his soul?  
But, there was a chance he could succeed,and he could see the same thoughts going through Jasper’s head.

The door opened and a coffin entered the room. Everyone stopped speaking and it was clear that most of them had no idea what it was doing there. The mages carrying it took the path to Joseph’s lab.  
“We’ll be right back.” Call promised as he and Jasper followed the mages.  
He didn’t knew if he would be able to stand it. Seeing Aaron’s blank face.

The coffin was put above a rock table and the mages left. The door shut and only the three of them were present in the room.  
Joseph didn’t acknowledged their presence as he opened the coffin and peered inside. Call walked to the table, fighting the lump in his throat; Jasper stayed behind.

He looked as if he was sleep, and he knew that if it weren’t for magic, his friend’s body would have been in the way to rooting already. It was al so surreal.  
“I’ll leave you to do your work.” And the man left.  
“Cal, you can do this.”  
He took a deep breath and started to try to find his friends essence. Void, emptiness, nothing. He was reaching through the dark but there was nothing to reach.

The hours passed and sweat slit down his forehead. “Call, I think you should stop now and rest.”  
Call agreed and left the body behind as he went back to their room and took a shower, all in silence. He wanted to throw up and faint at the same time. There was just nothing to reach for. What if Alex had also destroyed his soul completely?  
Maybe he actually fainted when he lied in bed because he wasn’t planning to go to sleep yet when his head fell on the pillow. His three friends didn’t bother him.

The next day was almost the same. Jasper brought lunch to the laboratory, and Joseph was nowhere to be seen the whole day.

The next day was pretty similar.

And the day after that, and the one after.

——————————————————————————————————————

He reached and reached but he never found anything, the days were starting to pass in a blur.  
And then, after who knew how many days, he found light. And he grabbed it, and put it in the place where he knew it belonged, the place where he had felt it shining time before.   
And then he opened his eyes, and heard Jasper’s gasp. And he knew everything was going to be alright.  
Because Aaron’s chest was moving up and down.  
And when the boy opened his eyes, they were not a fiery swirl of colors, they were green, tired and confused, but green, and alive.

“Where…” Aaron trailed of, and stopped mid phrase when he saw the two black haired boys.  
“Save energy, I’ll explain everything, later…” Call’s voice was wavering and he noticed he was crying, and Jasper was too.

“Bring the makar food and water and take him to a room.” they heard master Joseph behind, “Our priority number one, bringing Aaron Stewart one, had been fulfilled.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know if you think I should continue this or something.


End file.
